End Gun Violence In Chicago: Latest Black News Happening Across Country [The Lookout]

HELP US – WE’RE DYING!

And while you’re at it, we also need to hear from you about all the ways you’re working around the clock to keep more innocent people from being killed in Chicago.

Seven killed, 23hurt over the last weekend? Eleven more shot on Monday?

These are headlines we expect out of Syria, not The Windy City.

Seriously, what will it take for our country to recognize that there is an all-out war being waged on its soil?

Someone white dying? Nope, Sandy Hook took care of that and WE STILL ARE NO WHERE.

While it’s great that Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed new regulations for gun shops in Chicago last week, including a requirement that they videotape all sales, what we need to know is why we are we still trying to put a Band-Aid on the hulking elephants in the room–abject poverty, joblessness, a crumbling infrastructure and the struggling schools that plague the south and west sides of the city.

Look, if we can manage to find the billions of dollars in “foreign aid” in our budget to keep other nations from siding against us in a future war, surely we can come up with that and more to help stop a war that in waging in our back yard. right. now.

“MY BROTHER’S KEEPER” SHOULD STAY FOR MEN ONLY

It’s this urgency and utter helplessness around the conditions of Black folks in the ghetto — particularly our young Black and Brown men — that served as a catalyst for President Obama’s groundbreaking new initiative, My Brother’s Keeper.

And despite some well-intentioned brothers calling for the president to expand the program to women and girls recently, I think we need to keep the focus right where it is.

While it’s true that there are many broken Black and Brown girls and women as well, much of the reason why they’re broken is due to the absence of strong Black men, fathers and the like.

Too many of our men simply aren’t there for them, and every day we see evidence of this: they’re abandoning their kids, dropping out of school, going (or returning) to prison and falling victim to violent crimes at the hands of one another in cities like Chicago and states like Louisiana.

I believe that if we fix the men we fix the kids, male and female.

If we fix the men we fix the household.

If we fix the household we fix the community.

But to do this we must focus the $200 million that’s been allotted through the program so far — which ain’t hardly enough (though it’s a start) to undo hundreds of years of psychological, emotional and financial damage to our communities — where it is needed most: our men.

TEACHER EXPOSES STUDENT TO HIV

One man who likely won’t benefit from the president’s plan to improve the lives of Black men is 37-year-old Louisiana teacher Derrick Nesby, who is being held on $1 million bond for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student and knowingly exposing him to HIV. (If Nesby is found guilty he’ll be too busy behind bars.)

Nesby, an educator and a track coach with the H.L. Bourgeois High School in the Terrebonne Parish, has been charged with “felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile” and “intentional exposure of the AIDS virus.”

Police say he faces a maximum 20 years in prison though Nesby, who is currently in jail, claims he is innocent.

BLACK WOMEN SUE TEXAS STATE POLICE

Two innocent Black women who were subjected to full-body cavity searches on a Texas highway two years ago are suing the authorities.

Alexandria Randle and Brandy Hamilton are going after the Texas Department of Public Safety after being subjected to what they call “humiliating and illegal acts” at the hands of Texas troopers on Memorial Day 2012.

The women were pulled over for speeding and that’s when a male officer, claiming he smelled marijuana in the car, asked them to step out of the vehicle.

One of the women who was in a bathing suit asked to put her dress on but the officer apparently said, “No, don’t worry about it” before calling in a female trooper to perform the intimate search in full view of the woman’s family.

No drugs were found during the search.

When the matter was taken to court the male officer who initiated the search was fired, but the female officer was just placed on a 60-day suspension without pay.

It is not known how much money the women are seeking in the case but we hope they win.

CLEVELAND COPS INDICTED

In more “cops behaving badly” news, six Cleveland police officers were indicted Friday in the deaths of two unarmed suspects who were killed during a police car chase that ended in a schoolyard.

The cops fired a total of 137 times — 23 shots hitting the driver, Timothy Russell, and 24 hitting the passenger, Malissa Williams.

Neither of the victims was carrying weapons and both of the victims were Black.

Officer Michael Brelo — who lawyers say fired 49 shots, 15 of them while standing on the hood of the suspects’ car and firing through the windshield — has been charged with two counts of manslaughter.

The other five officers were charged with failing to control the chase.

While it’s a step in the right direction, we are far from done.

We still need to Indict the officers who shot Jonathan Ferrell, the unarmed man looking for help in Charlotte, North Carolina, last year and countless other Black and Brown victims that police have failed to serve and protect.

More About Tamika Mallory

Called “a leader of tomorrow” by Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, Valerie B. Jarrett, Tamika D. Mallory is a nationally recognized leader and civil rights activist. Tamika is the Founder/President of Mallory Consulting, LLC and the former Executive Director of the National Action Network (NAN), one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations. She is featured regularly as a leading voice on key social justice issues and is currently making headlines around the country for her tireless activism and strong stance on women’s issues, anti-violence, young adult advocacy, and decency.